In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
Pomegranates, rose petals and grevillea
It’s fall in San Diego and the pomegranates are ready to be harvested. Left on the tree, they will split and confirm their readiness. These came from a biblical garden that I tend at our church. Three mature trees yielded about eight bushels of pomegranates and the highest ones remain on the trees. The bushels of pomegranates disappeared on the Sunday they were set out.
My mother never let us eat pomegranates. “They’ll stain your clothes,” she’d say. Nonsense. Every child should have the experience of a pomegranate. If you’re not sure how to access the arils check out this video.
The strawberry guavas were smaller this season probably because of insufficient water during the hot weather.
My husband shakes the guava tree and the ripe fruit falls onto garden trays. It’s easier than picking them individually. We probably harvested at least five pounds last week.
I processed the fruit to make strawberry guava puree for the freezer. That’s three quarts of puree. Most was frozen to make jam later. I also stir it into plain yogurt, mix with rhubarb compote and applesauce and put it on fresh fruit.
The rhubarb ends its run later this fall and is quite robust now. I tidied the four foot wide plant and harvested about a third of the largest stalks. Compost layered around the plant will ready it for next season.
Guava puree adds color to the dreary rhubarb compote and gives it a flavor kick.
The limes are coming on and just in time for last night’s dinner of chicken tacos with avocado and lime.
There are other ongoing harvests but I’ll save for next week and close with a bouquet from my garden. Zinnias are in with the vegetables. Blue flowers are ceratostigma plumbaginoides which is very drought tolerant and blooms about eight months of the year in my coastal garden.
To see what other gardeners are gathering in, head over to Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.
